Heretofore, various kinds of apparatus have been proposed that determine a driver's degree of recognition of an object in the periphery of a vehicle from the direction of the object and the driver's line-of-sight direction, and present warning information if the degree of recognition is low.
For example, a traveling information providing apparatus shown in Patent Document 1 calculates attentive viewing frequency at which a driver's attentive viewing direction (gaze direction, direction of gaze) and a necessary attentive viewing direction in which safety should be confirmed by the driver while driving coincide, and decides a notification level of information of which the driver should be notified based on that attentive viewing frequency.
That is to say, this traveling information providing apparatus judges a degree of recognition of an object using a driver's point of attentive viewing (point of gaze, point of regard) and a point of attentive viewing with respect to an object necessary for safety confirmation, with only a point of attentive viewing viewed attentively by the driver as a criterion. A point of attentive viewing indicates a point when one object is viewed attentively using both eyes.
By this means, appropriate information is notified dependably with regard to a situation with which a driver is not in visual contact, and with regard to information with which the driver is determined to be in visual contact, the notification level is lowered in line with the height of the degree of recognition, and annoyance is reduced.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2929927